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Op-Ed: How Raw Milk Advocates Can Build Momentum for Social Change

Creating social change requires hard work, dedication and lots of time; often it takes decades of outcry before others start to pay attention, and years for momentum to build before there is a spark that can sweep a nation with change like wildfire. A cultural shift happens slowly, almost imperceptibly prepping the stage for this sweeping change. But then, seemingly all at once, things have shifted and what used to be a perception or practice hailed by the few becomes adopted by many.

The question is, are there things advocates can do to build momentum more rapidly and increase their chances of sparking this change? Momentum of any cause seems to really pick up speed when the cause gains support from those who aren’t perceived to directly benefit from the change: for example, when men began to champion for women’s rights.

For raw milk advocates, this means garnering the support of non-raw milk drinkers. To appeal to the mainstream, we can’t isolate ourselves from the mainstream with divisive rhetoric or stories that sound like conspiracy theories. We need to frame this issue like a basic human right – the right to access food from the earth – and a basic freedom – the freedom to choose for ourselves which of earth’s foods we eat.

We have already seen several raw milk leaders taking this approach and doing it successfully, with more legislative “food freedom” bills up for consideration in several states across the nation. Continuing to do so will surely help us build momentum for this raw milk movement.

Realmilk.com is a consumer education project of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nutrition education nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. Visit their website, westonaprice.org.

2 thoughts on “Op-Ed: How Raw Milk Advocates Can Build Momentum for Social Change”

Another good example happening right now is the “craft brewery revolution”. I don’t know what the conditions were that enabled the rebellion, it would be an interesting study. But I do know that beer monopolies stamped out competition from local brewers by getting the federal government to overregulate them as unsanitary. Sound familiar? Most of this regulation happened under Reagan while he preached the gospel of deregulation. But as history will show, it was his campaign donors who benefitted, in particular one located in Golden Colorado. I have no doubt that milk processors have pulled off the same capture of the market.